11/12/2018
Around sunrise this morning, aircrew began arriving at Detroit City Airport. They performed preflight inspections, briefed, pulled out four aircraft, and launched into the chilly skies over Detroit.
As is the team's tradition, each aircraft carried the photograph of a United States war veteran. Frequently, it is a Tuskegee Airman. Most often an African American. Always a person whose deeds are a reminder of the standard to which the team aspires. As is also tradition, the lead ship carried a primary flight student from the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum's flight program.
At exactly 0920L, the four-ship formation arrived at the intersection of Outer Drive and Ryan, going on to fly three passes over the two-mile route of the Detroit Police Department's 11th Precinct Veterans Day Parade. First in fingertip, then in diamond, then the missing man, in which the No. 3 ship pulls up and flies over the horizon.
For the fifth year, I got to lead that flight. I flew with one of my primary students in the instructor seat. It was her first time seeing formation flight and she both flew parts of the profile and gave hand signals to the other aircraft to change configuration.
In the formation were pilots who, among other things, have flown hundreds of Young Eagles flights and Civil Air Patrol cadet orientation flights, and performed search and rescue operations. One served in the U.S. Army and was a Golden Knight. Two are Civil Air Patrol officers. One has served with the National Disaster Medical System. All are part of a group of only seven pilots worldwide to hold formation cards in the glider category.
The aircraft are TG-7A Terrazzo Falcons, self-launching gliders that flew at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 1983 to 2003 before coming to Detroit. If you saw the first F-22 Raptor demo at an airshow or the television series Great Planes, you know about Col Paul "Max" Moga, now commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, N763AF, the No. 3 ship in the formation today is in Col Moga's logbook from the academy. It provided one of his first flights. The TG-7As fly displays like the flyover today, and they anchor the Tuskegee Airmen River Days Airshow over the Detroit River each June. But their most important mission is providing flight training to the youth of Detroit. You'll see them most Thursday afternoons in the summer over Belle Isle and the Pointes and in the pattern at Detroit City Airport.
Tupper Law Firm supports the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum. I serve as counsel handling transactions, disputes, and regulatory matters. I also serve as a director, air boss, pilot, and instructor helping to make pilots and instructors. It's some of the hardest and best work I get to do. And I still can't believe that I get to do it.
